Monday, September 21, 2015

Earthquake story

Okay, now for the stories that you have all been waiting for!

It
was a normal, sunny Wednesday here in the small mining town of Cabildo.
We had been walking all day because all of the appointments we had
planned had fallen through. So yes, it was a very normal day. At 7 we
headed over to our investigator´s house for the appointment we had set
with her. We talked for a little bit and then invited two of her kids to
join us. The teenage boy denied the offer but sat close by because he
just wanted to listen. The 21 yr old daughter joined us. We said a
prayer and started teaching the 10 Commandments.

They
are a Catholic family by tradition so they are familiar with the 10Cs
but as we were talking about the first 2 (1 God and No idols) they
brought up the question about the Virgin and the Saints. This was
actually the first time I've had to explain to an investigator why we
don't worship the virgin or the saints. Why it was the first time, I don't
know. It's just never come up before.

Quick
cultural note - Here in Chile they have what they call Los Bailes Chino
or in English, the Chinese Dances. Why they are called that I have no
idea. Basically they are dances that people perform to the Virgin. They
dress up in extremely colorful outfits. Just imagine the winter clothes
of Indians (like in the movie Pocahontas) but instead of browns and
grays there are brilliant yellows, reds, blues, and greens. So ya,
dressed like that they dance to the Virgin. Where that tradition comes
from I have no idea.

Well, the daughter
participates in the Chinese Dances to the Virgin. Right as we were
explaining why we shouldn't do that, the ground began to shake. It wasn't
anything new because Chile shakes all of the time. We just kept talking.
But the shaking didn't stop. Then after a few seconds it got really
strong!!! Nothing like I thought it would be. Haha I thought it was
awesome but everyone else was freaking out. The lights went out leaving
us in total darkness because the sun had already gone down. We were all
huddled by the door and after 4ish minutes the shaking stopped. The mom
then hugged me tightly and said "Oh thank God you both were here".
Everyone calms down and we start cleaning up the few things that fell
from the shelves. The grandpa then came out of a back room shining a
flashlight. That's when the first aftershock came! It was almost as
strong as the first if not of the same magnitude. It didn't last as long
which was good but a few more things fell which we then started cleaning
up. The grandpa then pulls out a generator out of nowhere and hooks it
up to a lamp that he had rigged to work with the generator. That old guy
is awesome.

After that nothing really
happened. A lot of family members came and went, checking to see if
everyone was alright. We cleaned things up then they drove us to our
pension.

In front of our pension there are
apartments of 5 floors. A few members live in those apartments
(including the dad that just got baptized) and we found them outside. We
asked where the dad and son were because we didn't see them. They were
up on the fifth floor helping someone whose roof fell in and now her
apartment was filling with water.

When we got
to our pension everything was completely intact except for a plastic
bowl that belongs to one of the members. It had fallen and was now
chipped. Our makeshift bookshelf had thrown up its books which was to be
expected. Besides that everything was fine. Nothing broken besides that
bowl.

Now we just feel a lot of aftershocks
which we hear are going to continue for up to a month.There have been
over 300 aftershocks of magnitudes of 4.0 and higher. Now we are so used
to them that we barely notice them. They're less frequent now but in the
morning we felt one during our studies.

Besides
broken dishes there isn't any damage here in Cabildo. All of the Chilean
buildings are specifically built to be earthquake-proof. How things are
in Illapel I don't know. Here everything is fine, so no, we aren't
spending any time doing service.

Haha every time I say that I enjoyed the earthquake people think I'm crazy! I can't blame
them. During the whole thing though I wasn't scared or worried because I
knew the Lord would protect us. Therefore, I just enjoyed the ride!

So,
ya. That's the big highlight of the week. It kind of killed the
September 18th celebrations a little (Independence Day for Chile). The
branch had an activity which due to the circumstances was good.

Now we are just working like normal. I can now say that I've lived through an 8.4 earthquake!

Advice for the week - When talking about the Virgin, try not to make her angry. She likes to shake the ground ;)